Chapter Text
Ruby quietly hummed along to her music as she strolled through the shop's dust-filled aisles. She had managed to get a few good ones, on sale since the place was closing. Ruby checked inside the little bag with the shop's logo to check that she had everything she needed.
"Oh! Forgot the bomb dust for Yang's gauntlets. She'd be super mad at me if I forgot." She looked around for a bit but couldn't find it. "Hey," Ruby approached the cashier "do you know where the bomb dust is?" The cashier pointed up. "On the roof?" The old man huffed in frustration at her statement. "Oh, you meant the second floor. Okay, thanks." she thanked the cashier before using her super speed to dash upstairs.
She crashed into one of the displays and picked herself back up to see she had crashed into the bomb dust aisle. "What was that?" the cashier yelled upstairs. "Nothing!" Ruby shouted back down. She lifted it back up and put the dust back before taking one of the ones that didn't fall.
Before going back to the cashier to pay for the dust she had brought, she went to the magazine section to grab the latest issue of the weapons magazine she liked. The cover of this one showed The Disciplinarian, which belonged to Glynda Goodwitch, the greatest huntress in all of Vale and an incredibly respected professor at Beacon Academy. She smiled at it for a bit before chucking into the bag with the dust.
Torchwick strolled into the store, whistling. The cashier greeted him just to see Torchwick grin and point his cane directly into the man's face. "Alright boys, regular hit. Get the dust and make it snappy or you're getting left behind for the hunters, ya hear me?" The men behind him grunted in acknowledgement before dashing off to grab the dust. The old man tried reaching for his scroll but stopped when Torchwick shot the desk in front of him. "Don't bother, old man. Nobody's that dumb."
Torchwick's men had reached the second floor. One of them noticed a girl in a bright red hood humming to some kind of song. He approached her and pulled her back. "Give me your money!" he ordered. "Are you robbing me?" Ruby asked the man. "Yes!" He shouted before suddenly getting thrown back by the force of being hit by a large metal object.
Ruby twirled her scythe through the air and grinned. "Time to take down some goons," she told herself. She ran up to a nearby one and cut through his aura like butter before moving on to the next two and doing the same. One of them pulled a gun out but she narrowly dodged it with her super speed.
Torchwick heard the commotion upstairs and ran up to see what the problem was. "I swear if there's a huntsman here, I'm gonna be livid." He expected a seasoned huntsman to be mowing down his men, so it was quite a shock to see some hyperactive child bouncing around with a giant scythe instead. He raised his cane and fired a missile at her, knocking her down.
"End of the circus act, red," Torchwick told Ruby. "He must be the boss," Ruby whispered to herself. "How astute of you to notice. Unfortunately, you're not exactly a big hero." Ruby rushed forward and swung at Torchwick who dodged out of the way and shot at the ground where he just was, causing Ruby to stumble a bit when she landed. He calmly kicked her in the gut, sending her sprawling to the ground and making her drop her weapon. As he moved to shoot her in the head, the rubble beneath him began to move. He dodged out of the way as it formed a small barricade between him and the red hood-wearing child.
"You've gone far enough, Roman Torchwick." the huntress told him. Roman groaned and loaded a smoke cartridge into his cane before firing it in front of Glynda. Smoke billowed up, cutting off her vision. Torchwick dashed over to a nearby fire exit and made his way to the roof. Glynda followed closely behind him while Ruby, who had just recovered, moved to follow them.
Torchwick turned to face the rapidly approaching huntsman. He smacked the weapon out of her hand when he saw Ruby reach the roof, surprising him and allowing Glynda to push him away and regain her weapon. Ruby, who had been delirious from Torchwick's attack, suddenly realised who she was next to.
"Ah! You're a real huntress. Can I have your autograph? Pretty please?" Ruby squealed in excitement. Before Glynda could scold her for getting into all this trouble, a helicopter appeared which Torchwick dashed towards. Before Glynda could stop him, some kind of throwing knife knocked her weapon, throwing its aim. The helicopter escaped once Torchwick had boarded it.
The next day, Ruby found herself in the Vale Police Department's station with a very pissed off Glynda pacing around her. "Do you have any idea what your little stunt there could have done? It's a miracle no one got hurt." Glynda scolded her. "They started it!" Ruby protested but before Glynda could retort, there was a knock at the door.
Glynda's expression softened "Fortunately for you, a certain someone was rather impressed by your actions tonight and would like to speak with you. Ozpin, you can come in now. I'm going to sleep, I deal with this kind of nonsense enough at Beacon."
Ozpin, a senile man with glass spectacles, a large cane and a slight smile on his face, entered the room. He sat across the table next to Ruby. "You have silver eyes." he said almost immediately. Ruby was a little taken aback by this. "Thanks, Dad says I get 'em from my mom."
Ozpin's eyes narrowed and the slight smile he'd had since he entered dropped for a moment before finding its way back on his face. "How interesting. Tell me, Ruby, would you like to come to Beacon?" Ruby nodded eagerly "More than anything. That's where my big sister Yang is going this year, and it's where my mom and dad trained to become huntsmen as well. But I can't join for another two years."
"And what if I offered to let you in early? Would you accept?" Ozpin asked. "Yeah, that would be amazing," Ruby told him. "Do you need help to get back home?" Ozpin asked her. Ruby sheepishly nodded "Yeah, I'm pretty sure the last plane to Patch left a while ago."
Ozpin's private plane landed right outside Ruby's house and she dashed inside. As she went to tell the others the good news. Glynda approached Ozpin. "Why did you let her in early?" Ozpin smiled "Because a simple soul like hers could be what saves us."